Academics warn that the rapid growth in the registration of pro-China political parties seen over in the past six years is a sign that the Chinese government is trying to infiltrate Taiwan in an effort to influence the outcome of upcoming elections.
Taiwan Thinktank councilor Tung Li-wen (董立文) said that since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) assumed office in 2008, a total of 116 new political parties have been registered, and more than 80 percent of these have a manifesto based on “promoting cross-strait exchanges and cooperation; advocating unification with China.”
“The Chinese government is using these small parties to infiltrate Taiwanese politics to cultivate and propagate more pro-China organizations,” Tung said.
“During last month’s visit by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍), these groups were mobilized for a show of force. Plans are now underway for more ‘drill training’ at the elections later this year. Their main aim is to ‘mobilize their troops to impact on the presidential election in 2016,” Tung said.
As of May 2008, there were 138 registered political parties, according to Ministry of the Interior figures, while as of last week there were 254, an increase of 85 percent.
Tung said that many of the newly registered small parties’ names contained the words Zhonghua (Chinese, 中華) or Zhongguo (China, 中國) and are pro-unification.
He said other small parties registered used “Taiwan” in their names, or are based on social philanthropy or religious foundations, but their explicit aims are to advocate for unification with China.
“Another development is that Chinese women married to Taiwanese men have formed and registered several political parties. We estimate that by the 2016 presidential election, the Chinese spouses could have a voting bloc of between 120,000 to 240,000 ballots,” Tung said.
“China provides support to Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing parties which are also known as ‘loyalists.’ Through elections, Communist China’s political control of Hong Kong is assured. The experience there shows that it can be done. So China is copying that template and applying it for Taiwan,” he said.
This is because China has realized that by controlling only 3 to 5 percent of Taiwan’s electorate, it can sway the presidential election, and thus decide Taiwan’s future, Tung said.
“Therefore China is cultivating underlings to organize political parties that pander to China’s political agenda in Taiwan,” he said.
“My personal observations indicate that these small parties are not isolated, but are well-organized into a hierarchy with close links and division of work missions. They have formed fraternal alliances and clubs, and hold large social gatherings each year,” Tung said.
He cited as an example that when Zhang came to Taiwan, he was warmly received by various groups and associations at all his stops, resulting from mobilization by these pro-China political parties and organizations.
Tzeng Chien-yuan (曾建元), a professor of administrative management at Chung Hua University in Hsinchu, said Taiwan has yet to pass the draft political party act, while the Civil Associations Act (人民團體法) is under very loose supervision.
“Under the Political Donations Act (政治獻金法), all political parties are forbidden to receive financial donations from China, however, there are many loopholes and it is easy to bypass the regulation,” he said.
“Many members of the public have ‘reasonable doubts’ about the source of their funding, and believe these parties are receiving financial support from China, but there is no direct evidence so far,” Tzeng said. “However, we know that China’s United Front political campaign and propaganda warfare are executing their infiltration and destabilization missions against Taiwan at every opportunity. They work at grassroots activities in villages and boroughs, and at higher levels, they are infiltrating to take control of media organizations and businesses conglomerates.”
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying